Q2 2026 Asia Vital Components Co Ltd Earnings Call
Speaker #1: 2026 earnings conference call. We are pleased to have with us today Mr. Eric Chen, Vice President; Mr. Matthew Shen, Executive Assistant to CEO; and Mr. Bill Chen, Senior Finance Manager.
Speaker #1: We'll provide an overview of the company's operating results for the second quarter of 2026. Following the presentation, we will open for Q&A. And now I would like to turn the call over to Asia Vital Management Team.
Speaker #2: Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to AVC's 2026 second quarter investor conference. I will now walk you through our financial and operating performance for the second quarter and the first half of 2026.
Speaker #2: Before we begin, please take a moment to review the disclaimer on this slide. Today's presentation is based on information currently available, and the actual results may differ due to various risks and uncertainties.
Speaker #2: Second quarter revenue reached new Taiwan dollar 49.1 billion. Remaining stable and quarter over quarter and increasingly 66% year over year. The key point on this slide is gross margin, which improved to 32.57%, up to 2.8 percentage point quarterly.
Speaker #2: Quarter over quarter and 8.16 percentage point year over year. This improvement was mainly driven by a more favorable product mix and higher revenue contribution for server applications.
Speaker #2: Demonstrating the less revenue growth is translating into better earnings quarterly. Operating margin reached 27.44%, and EPS rose to 24.37. Up 21% quarter over quarter and 137% year over year.
Speaker #2: And let's quickly walk you through the first half 2026 income statement. And I will skip through the CAGR numbers here. The full presentation will be available on our website after the call for anyone who would like to review the details.
Speaker #2: Quarterly revenue entered a new growth phase in 2025 and remained as a high level of approximately 49.1 billion in the second quarter of 2026, although revenue was borderly stable sequentially.
Speaker #2: EPS increased from 20 to 24. Highlighting further improvement in earnings quality. Four-year 2025 revenue reached 139.6 billion, which with EPS of new Taiwan dollar 49.70.
Speaker #2: Both metrics increased substantially compared with prior years, and the earnings growth faster than revenue. And thermal and chassis general combined revenue of 81.9 billion in the first half, accounting for 83.4% of total revenue and growing 104% year over year.
Speaker #2: Year over year, thermal growth 19.6% with chassis increase 134%, making land the main driver of product growth. Second quarter thermal revenue remained strong at the 30.6 billion.
Speaker #2: Chassis revenue increased sequentially from 9.9 billion to 10.1 billion, overall our core thermal and chassis business remained reboost. While system assembly and other products also recovered from the first quarter.
Speaker #2: Server and network was the primary growth driver in the first half. Revenue reached 64.9 billion, up 153% year over year. Year over year, and its share of total revenue increased from 48.4% to 66.1%, the higher server contribution not only support revenue growth but also improved our overall product mix, which was an important factor before the improvement in the gross margin.
Speaker #2: Looking ahead, as the demand for a high-power computing increased, we expect the liquid cooling application to become more widely adopted. Further increased the importance of server-related products in our revenue mix.
Speaker #2: Second quarter server revenue reached 32.4 billion, up 116% year over year, and represents 66% of total revenue. Least struggling shift from. Also an important factor behind the continued improvement in the gross margin.
Speaker #2: As liquid cooling expanded from select high-end platforms into a broader range of server applications, we believe server-related business will become increasingly important within our overall revenue mix.
Speaker #2: And in non-operating breakdown, second quarter non-operating income was 457 million. Improving significantly from a loss of 40 million in first quarter, the main change were net interest income of 255 million, and a shift from an exchange loss of new Taiwan dollar 305 million in Q1 to an exchange gain of 49 million in Q2.
Speaker #2: First half non-operating income was 417 million, lower than the same period last year, the main factor was a shift from exchange gain of new Taiwan dollar 759 million to an exchange loss of new Taiwan dollar 256 million.
Speaker #2: Higher net interest income partially
Speaker #3: offset this change.
Speaker #4: And the, uh, consolidated balance sheet at the end of June. Cash and cash equivalent reached $77.7 billion. An increase of, uh, NT$9.8 billion from the first quarter, equally attributed to parent also increased 22% to $55.2 billion.
Speaker #4: Inventory increased 14% sequentially, while account receivable
Speaker #3: declined 17%.
Speaker #4: And the balance sheet maintained ample liquidity. And the key financial ratio, the current ratio and the quick ratio improved to 126% and 69%. Respectively, while the debt ratio declined to 68%, account receivable days improved to 20 days, inventory days increased sequentially to 145 days.
Speaker #4: Mainly because mismatch in the availability of components with different lead times and extend the customer pull-in cycle. For certain orders, so inventory days remain below 174 days a year later— a year earlier.
Speaker #4: And our cash flow First half operating cash flow reached $26.3 billion, up 176% year over year after capital expenditure
Speaker #3: of $7.1 billion.
Speaker #4: Free cash flow reached $19.2 billion, approximately 3 times the level of the prior year period. Strong operating cash flow was the key driver behind the higher, higher-end cash balance.
Speaker #4: To conclude, AVC delivered significant year-over-year improvement in revenue scale, product and application mix, profitability, and cash flow during the first half of 2026. This concludes our financial presentation.
Speaker #4: Thank you, and we will now open the floor
Speaker #3: for questions. Thank you.
Speaker #5: Thank you, and we will now begin the Q&A session. We have received several questions in advance, and the first question is 2026 and 2027 tax CapEx plan and capacity expansion process in Vietnam.
Speaker #6: Okay, this is Eric. We have few questions we took before the meeting, so I will answer those questions first. And if you guys have any other question, feel free to enter it in the monitor or raise your hand to ask.
Speaker #6: So I will also reply later. Thank you. So the first question, 2026 and 2027 CapEx plan. Also capacity expansion progress in Vietnam. CapEx of this year 2026 is around NT$15 billion.
Speaker #6: For next year, we are still working on the plan. Expansion plan should be above this, this level. And our operating cash flow and existing bank facility are sufficient to, to find the expansion plan already.
Speaker #6: So we have no financing plan at this time. We will revisit, of course. If circumstance develops. As a principle, CapEx is allocated against actual customer project requirement.
Speaker #6: And the customer demand where we have order, we continue to expand capacity to meet clients' demand. On capacity expansion, continue across the board. Detailed capacity figures are still being finalized internally.
Speaker #6: What we can confirm right now is that our new facility has already entered mass production for the next generation GPU solutions, and we're beginning contribution revenue from 3rd quarter of this year.
Speaker #5: And the next question is liquid cooling penetration rate in ASIC in 2027 and Rubin Ultra timeline.
Speaker #6: Thank you, Annie. We don't disclose penetration rate or share for a specific customer or specific project information. This is what we cannot share. What we can share right now here is liquid cooling penetration rate in the data center area continue to rise, and we believe it should be past more than 50% next year.
Speaker #6: And the Um, On the timeframe of, uh, Rubin Ultra and other next-generation product. Our approach is, is very consistent. We discuss the roadmap with different clients.
Speaker #6: With every important client, we set priority together and that we put the best, the more resources behind the program that matter most, that is the most important one.
Speaker #6: So client will have the right solution, and when they go mass production, it can mass produce smoothly. Delivery time on other project, on any project, is automatically driven by client, their own schedule.
Speaker #6: So what we can do is we follow the schedule, we make sure when they go mass production, it's smooth, and we will be one of the major suppliers.
Speaker #6: Thank you.
Speaker #5: And the next question, is ASIC demand accelerating enough to offset any future NVIDIA digestion period? Okay, thank you.
Speaker #6: For ABC, it's not an either/or for GPU, for ASIC product. Both products need thermal and mechanical solutions, power consumption and rig density. while, while in the stage keep rising on both solutions.
Speaker #6: So we continue to ship in both solutions, which means either way we benefit. from it. ASIC client will be one of the major growth engines for our company in next generation, next stage.
Speaker #6: More broadly, we believe AI is real. What we observe is client continue to commit more. Put more people, put more money, put more resource, continue, continue, continue.
Speaker #6: The change is ongoing.
Speaker #7: Yeah, thanks, thanks, Eric. Here, I'm just gonna pitch in and add to that answer. I think the question in itself signifies a slowdown of NVIDIA and/or a slowdown of NVIDIA's growth.
Speaker #7: As a matter of fact, on our end, we're continuing to see strength both in ASIC and in NVIDIA. And I thought it was important to make that clarification that As Eric has said, we are committed to delivering the best thermal solutions, the best mechanical solutions for the leaders in tech.
Speaker #7: This was always our mission. That's what we've been doing and that's what we'll continue to do. And so if I, yeah, I think it was just important to clarify that.
Speaker #7: We're not particularly seeing a slowdown in NVIDIA, and I'm unsure what it means by the question by digestion period. But we are continuing to view NVIDIA as an important customer that we are keen to continue to work with.
Speaker #7: Thank you. Thank you, Matthew.
Speaker #5: Thank you. And the next question, can management provide an update on AVC's expected cooling content per rack and supply share for Vera Rubin, Google TPU V8, AWS Trainium 3.
Speaker #6: Okay, sorry, but again, we are not able to disclose share or content value for an individual customer's individual project. What we can share here is that AVC continues to hold a major supplier share growth in those programs.
Speaker #6: On how customer
Speaker #5: Okay.
Speaker #6: It's generally a complexity judgment according to your capability and capacity, paste human record. trailbreaker, delivery stability, quality, geographic diversity, and of course price, supply chain resilience.
Speaker #6: So our objective in every program is that we will, we will try to be the customer's main source, one of the main source, and that has been considered through Ole.
Speaker #6: the projects we co-work with clients. And, uh, Not to, to, to the specific project, but overall. We do see the trend that liquid cooling product penetration rate will keep continue increasing, increasing, increasing.
Speaker #6: The trend is for sure. On this way. Thank you.
Speaker #5: And the next question, visibility of demand beyond 2026. Okay, thank you. Uh,
Speaker #6: Customers are still adding more and more resources rather than going back, and this is what's in, in front of our view. Liquid cooling penetration rate in the data center should pass.
Speaker #6: 50% next year. And while liquid cooling modules drive most of our visible growth, the CAGR of the chassis rack and other mechanical business is actually comparable.
Speaker #6: ABC, we always say we are a total thermal and mechanical solution provider. We are able to design thermal and the mechanical part with client in a system together at the same time.
Speaker #6: So that has always been our strength and our goal to, to provide a one-stop shop to all of our major clients, and we will continue to remain this, this this strategy.
Speaker #6: So, so overall, the mechanical business should maintain a stable, strong growth in the coming quarter and the years, along with our So much power there.
Speaker #6: And our CapEx plan for next year reflects this view that both of mechanical and thermal product will in other phase of capacity expand plan next year.
Speaker #6: Thank you.
Speaker #5: Thank you. And the next question, with first quarter gross margin at 29.8%, is a roughly 30% level sustainable? Sustainable as liquid cooling and new capacity ramp?
Speaker #6: We don't comment on the margin of any individual product, like any product itself, but it's the company level, corporate level. Opalana going to mass production is about in the second half of this year, which is right now, and we are also putting more and more automation equipment online.
Speaker #6: Which will help us overall to provide a better gross margin. This is the goal we are aiming to on the mechanical side. Rising rig density means specific specification upgrading with it.
Speaker #6: The chassis today is not only a simple chassis. A chassis today has to carry a liquid cooling module, manifold, and a fan while still continuing meeting structural airflow and serviceability requirement.
Speaker #6: All of these requirements will still need to be met in this area. So both design difficulty and the value, content value per rig, of course moving up.
Speaker #6: Overall, we remain optimistic about the company's outlook. outlook.
Speaker #5: Thank you. And the next question, how's 3rd quarter margin outlook?
Speaker #6: We remain the outlook we have given previously, and the— but of course we are not guiding a specific gross margin number for this quarter and also next quarter.
Speaker #6: Direction-wise, the shift into mass production across the board, across all the product portfolio, across all the ceremony mechanical product. And the contribution— continuous introduction of the automation equipment should help, should benefit us to meet the supportive of our margin trend.
Speaker #5: And the next question, what is the— what is the sequential revenue growth outlook for 2nd half 2026?
Speaker #6: This is similar with the previous one. We mean we maintain the outlook we have given previously of our product. begin entering mass production in the 2nd half this quarter and the next quarter.
Speaker #6: So 2nd half of 2026, uh, should be better than the 1st half. And this should be a reasonable expectation. Let's say it depends on clients' pull in timing.
Speaker #6: Overall, our situation is broadly in line with the industry, and we continue to build a our company future optimistically. Thank you.
Speaker #5: And the next question, the ASIC market share outlook and contribution from SwitchTrade for Vera Rubin. Is the company holding a dominant position for SwitchTrade?
Speaker #5: Okay, thank you. Again, we don't— we are not able to answer specific project
Speaker #6: and the client's information. But what we can share is, along with GPU market, for the ASIC market share, we are also have a major market share in ASIC product, including Coldplay, including Metaflow.
Speaker #6: So this is the, the first question. Answer for the first question. Secondly, um, we continue to hold a major main, main supplier, major supplier position in the switch product.
Speaker #6: From the generation 1 until now, we are still the major switch SMOS solution provider. Thank you.
Speaker #5: And the next question, ASIC project update and competition.
Speaker #6: Again, I can still only answer this question broadly, in general. In general, Uh, Client competition along among different ASIC solutions is getting more and more.
Speaker #6: So we see lots of different new ASIC products launched in different client sites, and the ABC continue to be major thermal and mechanical supplier for those ASIC products.
Speaker #6: And we have high confidence about this product segment as well.
Speaker #5: Thank you, Eric, and we will now take questions from online participants. If you would like to ask a question, please unmute your line, or you may submit your question through the WebEx chat room.
Speaker #5: And we have a question from Timson Lee. And Timson Lee, you may unmute your line.
Speaker #7: Hi, thank you. Thank you for taking my question and congrats on the, on the really nice results. I guess just a direction question or a big picture question of Beyond 2026, how should we look at your products in terms of specs and the direction of this sort of the cold plate market going forward?
Speaker #7: Just a big picture and directional. sort of view. Okay, so
Speaker #6: In general, both GPU, I mean, only referring to Coldplay itself. In general, both GPU and ASIC product, the design complexity of Coldplay is getting more and more complicated.
Speaker #6: So In the past, it may be when we say, oh, one piece of Coldplay, it means a tube. And it's really a simple piece of Coldplay.
Speaker #6: Now, when we say one set of Coldplay, it maybe contain like several pieces Hopefully. And it may contain— it has lots of different types, maybe 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 4, maybe top side and bottom side both has a Coldplay, blah blah blah.
Speaker #6: So I mean, in general, the complexity of Coldplay itself become more and more complicated. So that's why we are able to provide our key value.
Speaker #6: to start to work with client in a very early stage to contribute our capability. And go through with them through the MBR process, and in the end successfully smoothly go mass production.
Speaker #6: And during the phase during the, the MPI phase. Of course, when a product getting more and more complicated, more and more complicated, the encounter value for sure will increase.
Speaker #6: So this is a general trend we see in both GPU and ASIC market for coplay itself.
Speaker #7: Yeah, thanks, Eric. I'm Matthew, and I would just like to add to that answer. I think Eric already gave a very complete answer, but what I'd like to add is When we look at spec in terms of thermal, we really are looking at a multitude of factors.
Speaker #7: So TDP would be one, weight would be another. Form factor is another, system complexity, as Eric mentioned earlier, is another, and all of these have a direct impact on the design complexity of what we deliver to our customers.
Speaker #7: Now if we look past the '26 into '27, I suppose already on very many exhibitions such as GTC, such as Computex, you— our investors, including ourselves, would have already gained some insight into the immediate next generation or next 2 generations.
Speaker #7: Past that point, our thermal is really heavily dictated by what the customer system-level solution looks like. And what that means is before our customers have decided what they want, specifically in what they want, they want their system, they want their rack, they want their trays to look like, it becomes very difficult for us to share in a non-speculative manner what we think the future trajectory is.
Speaker #7: Now, that being said, I think history is always a good teacher, and if we look at the previous generations leading up to this moment in time, what we will be— what we can clearly see is that system complexity has continued to increase from NVIDIA's HGX platform to their MGX platform.
Speaker #7: Platform going from. 8 times, 8 cards in an HGX tray into 72 GPUs in an MGX system. So that massive step up in complexity also was what was driving a lot of our growth in the past few quarters.
Speaker #7: If we look on the ASIC side, the same story is developing. Where to meet. More complicated system-level solutions where customers are trying to put more components in a tray, trying to put hotter components in a tray, that then driving a significant architectural change in the tray-level design.
Speaker #7: Which then gives us a boost not only in content but also in margins. We should continue to expect seeing this going forward. Now I understand that was maybe a bit of a non-answer.
Speaker #7: If we look at what we're working on right now and what we are trying and exploring right now with our customers, with our future— on our future projects, the things that we're investigating right now include changing the TIM material, changing the material of the cold plate, controlling for weight, controlling for hotspots on the cold plate.
Speaker #7: Continuing to push for higher TDP, continuing to push for higher flow speeds. And, and also looking into 2-phase liquid cooling. So all of these directions are potential directions that customers will continue to want further improvements on.
Speaker #7: And because every system is so different, we are having to look at all of these different aspects, look at these different development trajectories to really make sure that we can continue to stay on top of what our customers' future— well, current and then future system architectures will look like.
Speaker #7: So just to add some color there.
Speaker #8: Yep, thank you, Matthew, and thanks, Eric, for the super, super comprehensive answer. Now shifting gears to maybe more of a short-term question, would you say you are more optimistic in terms of, let's say, order demand on some certain projects versus, let's say, quarter ago or a couple months ago.
Speaker #6: I will answer this first, and if Matthew, you have other input, please go ahead later. Yeah, like what I mentioned previously, The AI demand is real.
Speaker #6: The demand is still very strong, and we continue to expand based on our clients' real order, real forecast. And we even receive some down payment first before our expansion.
Speaker #6: So we are still optimistic for the overall AI product chain, and we have high confidence that we will be part of the journey. growth with our client, Health City.
Speaker #6: Thank you.
Speaker #7: Yeah, I would just like to add to that. If we're looking at the last few quarters, it always is the case where when we are further away from the delivery, the mass production date, we are more cautious about forecasts that our customers give us.
Speaker #7: And I think Eric mentioned a key point earlier, which is that we have received prepayment on our expansion or received prepayment on the capacity that we are delivering to our customers.
Speaker #7: Ultimately, the forecasts have Well, on select projects have continued to be revised upwards. What really gives us the confidence that this forecast is real, that we can continue to expect strength in AI, is customer willingness to pay us beforehand.
Speaker #7: And at this current moment, Many of our customers are willing to do this for us. to prepay us for expansion, to prepay us for capacity, to prepay us for building buffer stock and inventory for them.
Speaker #7: And so as we approach the end of Q3, These are the signals that we are paying more attention to rather than just looking at the forecasted figures, which are historically always prone to change.
Speaker #7: Thank you.
Speaker #5: And if you would like to ask a question, please unmute your line, or you may submit your questions through the WebEx chat room. Yep, Pam Liu, you may unmute your line.
Speaker #5: Hi, thank you so much for taking my question. I'm wondering whether you can shed some light on the art and the science of setting ASP on products that are going through a significant capacity expansion.
Speaker #8: So is there any rules of thumb in saying, for example, you know, ASP will go down X% if capacity go up by Y% because you can then share lots of that value with your customers?
Speaker #8: And that will help you getting further orders because you are very competitive on capacity delivery and the price. So like, how do you— like, what's your philosophy of setting that ASP right?
Speaker #8: Is gross margin a target, a goal in doing so, or is that just an outcome? Thank you.
Speaker #6: Overall, I would say it's an outcome, it's a result. We do not— there's no a methodology or a sequence. recipe that we can see, okay, I do like this percentage of expansion and I can gain how many percent of the, the ASP.
Speaker #6: We do not what we can do in corporate level is The, the only principle is the more complicated product, usually we can go to more Uh, beta margin.
Speaker #6: And when it's a small volume project, we also charge higher margin when it's— if it's a super big volume, then, then this is of course, uh, this is negotiable, but there's no clear cut, no, no methodology that How many percentage increase on capacity equal to how many percentage of ASP increase?
Speaker #6: This is my view. Matthew, you want to add?
Speaker #7: More color on this? Thank you. Yeah, thanks. Thank you, Eric. And thank you, Pam, for the question. It's truly one that is difficult to answer directly.
Speaker #7: And between it being a science and an art, it definitely is more of an art. And the reason it's more of an art is because when we do pitch an ASP or when we do work on a project with our customers, The ASP content is heavily dependent on a multitude of factors.
Speaker #7: What can be said that is common across all sorts of different thermal solutions, whether it's fan, whether it's chassis, whether it's liquid cooling module, is that we as a company continue to value a long-term partnership with our customers.
Speaker #7: So what we are trying to do is to be a long-term solutions partner with our customer. What that means is the, the ASP price isn't something whereby we just try to infinitively push up our price, we try to exploit market capacity gaps.
Speaker #7: We are trying to pitch prices at a reasonable amount. That means we can cover the 100, 200 engineers that we put in on each project.
Speaker #7: But also means that we can continue to form a long-standing relationship with our customers to continue to be their main source to for our customers to continue to be happy for us to be their main source.
Speaker #7: And it definitely is a balance between many things. It's a balance between how many engineers we have to put in. It's a balance between what time to market the customers want, system complexity, how much time timelines that we have to work to, as well as some of the other specs that was mentioned earlier— weight, TDP, etc.
Speaker #7: And I suppose what is good for ASP is always higher spec, higher difficulty, and higher complexity products. will always be, be accretive to our ASP and margins, which is actually what we've seen in the past few quarters.
Speaker #7: And also why AI data centers and AI server solutions will continue to drive our margin profile upwards, because it is fundamentally a more complex solution than the historical products that we made in laptops, in desktops, etc.
Speaker #9: Okay, that's super helpful. Thank you. I have 2 more, please, if that's okay. The first one is just that if you think about your supply chain and anything that's really important to delivering the capacity growth that you have planned for.
Speaker #9: Is there anything that's particularly of concern? Are your supply chains ready? Do you, or are you still able to recruit and retain the engineering talent that you'd like to have?
Speaker #9: So that's the first question. And the second question is, I wonder whether you can comment a bit more on growth potential in China AI customers or, or, or in that market in general?
Speaker #9: Thank you.
Speaker #6: Thank you. Thank you for the question. It's a very good question. So I will answer the first one first.
Speaker #9: Yes.
Speaker #6: The question itself is also a good improvement to our overall capability. When we say capability, it's not only a design capability, it's an end-to-end how we can make the product mass production smoothly with a certain, certain modeling continuously.
Speaker #6: So for those tools, Coplay itself means for itself. They are also a module which contains lots of sub-tier components. So to us, the key principle is First of all, I need to have the system design capability of this module.
Speaker #6: Secondly, I want to have, I want to have an in-house manufacturing capability. For those important sub-tier components. Take some example, uh, Coplay, uh, QD is a very important stuff, so that's why we have our subsidiary for detail They are, they are, they have a talent team working on this.
Speaker #6: Another example is the tube, the hose. Lots of competitors. Lots of clients, they think the hose is like when you take a shower in your home.
Speaker #6: That's what is normal stuff, but to us, not. No, it's a very important product that you need to keep it very precise. It cannot have leakage, and you need to have a stable, sufficient output.
Speaker #6: So Alternatively, you can have the whole module. shimmed smoothly. So we also have the— so we have lots of in-house capability, manufacturing capability for those important components and And then the list is continuous, continuous to be rebuilt through generation to generation, take some rental like But still, the, the, the host itself in the first generation, when we call work with client, Almost, I would say, all of the module makers, including MBC, the main capacity is outsourced.
Speaker #6: Everyone treats it as a normal component. But starting from the second generation, to us, this is very important. So we internally, we urge to the management team and we start to establish of our in-house capability.
Speaker #6: Before, we already have the design capability, but then we adopt more manufacturing capability. So this is a very good case to help us overall to continue improve our supply chain component, improve our shipment, and also improve our cost structure.
Speaker #6: And those make us continue outstanding among the competition. This is the first question. And the, the second one
Speaker #7: Yeah, I think the second one was a question on our opportunity in China, but just before we jump to the second question, I'd just like to add to Eric's answer, Pam, which is on talent and talent retention, we are There are several things that we're doing.
Speaker #7: Number one, we understand that talent, to acquire talent isn't always just to pay the big bucks. We continue to offer the best engineers in the field an opportunity to be working on the most critical projects in all of technology right now.
Speaker #7: This is an edge that only ABC has. We are participating in absolutely every project that every CSP has, that NVIDIA has. And we're continuing to work on next-generation solutions, even for robotics, space, or autonomous vehicles.
Speaker #7: So I suppose in talent retention, not only do we offer the best opportunity to work on well, the most exciting projects. We are also setting up new offices, new locations to cater to different potential hires, as well as I think probably if we come back to the monetary part, We have about NT$10 billion of options outstanding at this moment.
Speaker #7: to continue to retain our best talent and This is what enables us to have an engineering team that's more than 1,800 people to continue to have them build experience with us and continue to contribute their expertise into the most exciting projects.
Speaker #7: Now, the next question on China, I'll let Eric answer first.
Speaker #6: Thanks, Matthew. For China, what we can share right now is since day one, even before pandemic, ABC was able to join all the major ASIC projects with China-based clients in the late '20s.
Speaker #6: Still ongoing. We continue joining those ASIC project development, not only the green part. But also there are still much and many projects there are air cooling, not liquid cooling.
Speaker #6: So we participate both of LAN and also for not only coprocessor itself, but also other product, even, even SiCAR CPU, those product, we are also part of LAN.
Speaker #6: So we believe we have we will continue have a healthy growth in China market. Thank you.
Speaker #7: Yeah, thank you, Eric. To add to that answer, we have continued to be longstanding partners with China CSPs. Even before AI infrastructure or AI ASICs.
Speaker #7: took the spotlight of the tech world. So we're very familiar with China customers. We have continued to form once again a longstanding partnership relationship with Chinese suppliers.
Speaker #7: 5 of our 6 manufacturing facilities are in China, which enables us to supply to them relatively flexibly and The main difference between AVC and Chinese local producers is, number one, we are maybe 5 times, 10 times the size of our Chinese competitors.
Speaker #7: And number 2, our Chinese competitors don't meet us in terms of the design capability, the architectural solutions design capabilities that, that we are able to provide.
Speaker #7: Our Chinese competitors are, for the most part, really good competitors in their ability to manufacture. But the ability to design is something that needs to be built up over time.
Speaker #7: It needs to be built up over working on very many projects. And as such, for Chinese CSPs and Chinese startups in AI, we continue to be number one choice across the board.
Speaker #7: Now in terms of our opportunity in China, once again, this is heavily dependent on what our customers want to do in their own ramp.
Speaker #7: We continue to remain committed to supporting their journey, but the growth trajectory and the forecasts and the growth outlook, whether it's this year, next year, '28, is heavily dependent on what our customers' own strategic plans in AI are.
Speaker #7: Thank you so much. It's super helpful. Thank you.
Speaker #5: Are there any questions from other investors?
Speaker #9: It's, it's 10 again. I can always have one more if there's nobody else asking. Sure, go ahead, please. Okay, thank you. Well, just because you mentioned in the— when we talk about talent, how to attract them, you mentioned robotics, space, and autonomous.
Speaker #9: Just out of curiosity, to the extent that you could disclose, what would be your involvement or focus in the space? Space.
Speaker #6: Okay, okay. For this part, I can only share very wildly, very roughly. The, our client in space area. We do work with few clients right now, and they are 2 separate business model layer.
Speaker #6: First of all, satellite itself. Secondly, The so-called AI data center on the space. We do work with clients, different, different clients in both area in the sun of client.
Speaker #6: Lehav. They are under one big umbrella, so We work with. Leah. Maybe they be BUA in the past. Now we were able— we are able to work with the BUC, BUD together.
Speaker #10: Because we need them.
Speaker #6: It's a technology. It's a product, so we have a very good track record. We have a long history co-working with clients in many mini field, so when client jump from A to B to C, they know ABC.
Speaker #6: They know ABC can help them, co-work with them to together work on the journey, and in the end make to the product that they want and follow the regulation.
Speaker #6: Take some example, geodiversity. Take some example, um, Normally, the, the, the, the requirement they, they, they have either on human itself, either location, either on product, we can all support them so they feel comfortable to work with us.
Speaker #6: Yeah, thank you. Matthew.
Speaker #7: You want to add more? I don't have much to add, but that I suppose What does excite us is the space piece because, well, it's going to space is objectively a very interesting segment.
Speaker #7: And as Eric mentioned, we continue to support our customers. We continue to leverage our long-term relationship with the leaders in tech to enable ourselves to continue to be number one in any tech generation.
Speaker #7: Maybe 5 years down the line, we're going to Mars, or 10 years down the line, we're going to Pluto. We have full confidence that in any tech iteration, in any solution iteration, we continue to be our customers' number one choice.
Speaker #7: Well, just to clarify, going to Mars and Pluto is not currently in our pipeline. But just as I mentioned, to say we are committed to that long-term trajectory rather than just trying to win project by project.
Speaker #9: Okay, thank you. That's super helpful. And I know it's a tricky question, but I'm also more thinking about, like, what would be the cooling method in space if not conduction, convection.
Speaker #9: So I'm just wondering, is there anything on the sort of science breakthrough front that you might be able to share? Or I'm also happy to wait and see when you're going to product.
Speaker #6: Very high level speaking, it's a very advanced version. Super improved version of existing product, existing technology. It's also conduction, it's also convection, it's also kind of evaporation.
Speaker #6: Those technologies are all in review. Are all in discussion. Yeah, but in the end, it's just a more advanced version of existing product. Thank you.
Speaker #6: Yeah, I think to add to that, Ian's
Speaker #7: Our conduction, our convection, our evaporation can only happen in confined components. Ultimately, to expel the heat into space, we would have to rely on radiative cooling, which is the same way that the heat from the Sun gets to the Earth.
Speaker #7: this. is less effective and more unavailable compared to, say, air cooling on Earth. But this is exactly why we need to continue to work on finding the best way to run it, not only to dispel the heat but also to run it in a way that enables reliability because we're not able— once something is sent into space, there's no serviceability.
Speaker #7: There's no way to fix it if something goes wrong. So we are pushing our boundaries in multiple directions, not just in how do we expel the heat, but also how do you make something that can be in space that can last the lifetime of the satellite, of the space data center.
Speaker #7: And these requirements are higher. Significantly higher than what we would expect on Earth.
Speaker #9: Thank you so much and good luck with that.
Speaker #7: Yeah, we're, we're very excited. Thank you for that question.
Speaker #5: And are there other questions? And if there are no further questions, let's end today's call. And thank you all for joining us today, and thank you, Eric, Matthew, and Bill, for your time and insight.
Speaker #7: Have a good day. Bye-bye. All right, thanks everyone. And thanks, Pam. Thanks, Tinson, for the questions and everyone else who submitted early. See you in the next quarter.
